According to Garrison (2009),Social presence is “the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop inter-personal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities.”

Defining, creating and maintaining social presence in online courses is the focus of this week's show and is part of a three-part series that considers the Community of Inquiry framework.

Jennifer Maddrell leads the discussion as we address issues such as: differences between a Community of Inquiry and Community of Practice, how certain tools may help improve social presence and delivering meaningful activities that can enhance sense of being an integral part of the learning experience.

[Key synthesis of research ... "research suggests that although social presence alone will not ensure the development of critical discourse in online learning, it is extremely difficult for such discourse to develop without a foundation of social presence." (p. 159)]

[See definition ... " ... the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally in a community of inquiry . The function of this element is to suppor t th e cognitive and affective objectives of learning. Social presence supports cognitive objectives through its ability to instigate, sustain, and support critical thinking in a community of learners" (p. 52)]

" ... the ability of learners to project themselves socially and
emotionally in a community of inquiry . The function of this element
is to suppor t th e cognitive and affective objectives of learning.
Social presence supports cognitive objectives through its ability to
instigate, sustain, and support critical thinking in a community of
learners" (p. 52)

07:44 - Jon Zurfluh
You're talking about Social Network Analysis - an area of organizational theory

09:47 - Joni
I agree Peggy. I think of Community of Inquiry as being specific to learning and being in a learning space. Whereas the community of practice is about the profession and the enculturation, contribution, maintenance, etc. of the community's cultural knowledge and so on.

13:55 - Peggy George
I've seen some really effective uses of Twitter as role-playing and identifying with different points of view with content

13:58 - Chris Bell
Cammy--are you in higher ed?

14:47 - Joni
Twitter is a way to tie the Community of Inquiry with students to the professional community of practice.

15:08 - Peggy George
that was such a great point Joni about providing engaging experiences to make the students want to take responsibility for their own learning

15:44 - Joni
It is one way. Other social networking tools help too -- like Ning, Facebook, LinkedIn.

16:26 - Peggy George
I agree although LinkedIn isn't as interactive in my experience as Ning and Facebook

16:56 - Joni
I use a lot of music activities for social connection, but also conceptual understanding activities. Powerful instructional strategy because of its emotional connection for folks.

17:24 - Joni
Peggy, have you used the groups feature in LinkedIn. That helps.

17:26 - sean http://bigbluebutton.org/ has much potential as a free and open source solution to compete with Elluminate and other similar synchronous tools.

17:33 - Peggy George
I was in an Elluminate session yesterday where the moderator allowed us to contribute in app sharing and build our quiz items collaboratively. It was a great experience!

18:03 - Peggy George
yes I've used the groups feature a bit in LinkedIn but it still feels like it's one way communication

18:11 - Joni
Anyone working with Learn Central?

18:23 - Peggy George
I use LearnCentral all the time

18:34 - sean
discussion in Blackboard is horrible. but other tools (e.g., phpBB open source forums) allow photos and signatures in posts so i think it's far better than Blackboard with regard to class discussions.

19:03 - Joni
Yes, it isn't great Peggy...I agree. It is just where a lot of the professional community of practice members hang out. :-)

19:16 - Peggy George
choices are good :-)

19:21 - Robert
Thanks for the tip Sean.

19:28 - Joni
I am intrigued with LearnCentral, Peggy. Should I be?

19:39 - Robert
We ae on our way to Moodle...

19:47 - Joni
I allow an opt out if it involves social networking.

19:56 - Peggy George
yes LearnCentral is a growing, vibrant social learning network where you can create your own groups

20:11 - Robert
It's policy at UM

20:13 - Chris Bell
That seems like a viable solution for higher ed, not so much for K-12

20:45 - Peggy George
give them a choice about how they want to participate and don't require one specific tool

20:48 - Joni
Individuals need to control their own online footprint. But with Twitter, I put a feed of my tweets in the course shell too so no one misses out.

21:18 - sean
i allow students to use their name or an alias, but no opt out.

21:34 - Peggy George
I agree with that Joni!

22:10 - Peggy George
Alec Couros provides a lot of options for participation in his open online courses

22:19 - Joni
It has a lot to do with relevance. I do a lot to help students see the relevance, and then make the decision. I allow an opt out, but by the end of the term most have seen the relevance and have joined in.

23:30 - Joni
The group feature in Facebook has allowed me to keep the personal and professional differentiated.

23:31 - Peggy George
that's the key Joni!! once they understand how it is impacting their digital footprint and see the value they will want to join in

23:39 - sean
my bigger issue is the management of having so many students out blogging and commenting, etc. -- i use Google Reader, but if i want to comment on a student's blog entry then i still have to leave Google Reader and visit the actual blog. it's very tedious when you have a lot of students.

24:37 - Peggy George
the same principle applies when you want your students to use social media or online blogs in K-12--you have to educate the parents so they will give permission

24:40 - Joni
I was challenged with making blogging relevant for my students...

25:40 - Peggy George
Joni say more about that--take the mic

25:41 - Joni
Ning and LearnCentral allow for the creation of bounded online social networks...that seems like great approach for K-12

25:43 - Jennifer Maddrell
Feel free to grab the mic

25:56 - Joni
Say more about what, Peggy?

26:05 - Joni
I am rambling...

26:05 - Peggy George
@Joni-how did you make blogging more relevant to your students?

26:56 - Joni
For my students? Two things: establishing a professional portfolio to showcase their work, and to maintain an ideation journal to inspire their design work.

27:29 - Joni
But, I've had to really model it...and connect them to valuable blogs for them to see relevance. It is a challenge every time.

27:36 - Peggy George
your dissertation will definitely help to fill that research gap!!

28:26 - Peggy George
do you have students create eportfolios that are public and not behind secure environments?

28:47 - sean
little evidence to see benefits of professional portfolios to the student (beyond anecdotes).

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